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Holiday consumer alert – watch out for those VIP membership clubs — the ones that automatically charge monthly fees to your credit card. Those membership clubs may not live up to their promises and can make it hard to cancel membership.

Watch out for scams targeting aging veterans. Unscrupulous financial advisors are recommending high commission investments to aging veterans as a way to gain eligibility for Veterans Administration benefits. According to the VA these schemes do not work. All the aging veteran is left with are unsuitable investments that have to be held for many years.

What was Robert Rubin’s role in false statements about losses made by Citigroup in an October 2008 analyst call? At the time, Robert Rubin was Chairman of Citi’s Executive Committee. Neither he nor any board member was named in the SEC case arising out of those statements, for which Citigroup paid a $75 million civil settlement. But Rubin and other board members had been informed of losses far exceeding the amount of losses disclosed in the analyst call weeks before the call.

“It took Jennifer Sharkey more than eight years to get a trial over her dismissal from JPMorgan Chase & Co. A Manhattan jury needed only five hours to find the former wealth manager was fired illegally and award her $1.13 million in damages. Then, it took just an hour for a Manhattan judge to upend the verdict and send the whole case back to square one.”

The SEC has been investigating the Woodbridge Group of Companies for the past year. The Woodbridge Group, based in Sherman Oaks, California, has raised over $1 billion from investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a subpoena enforcement action against 235 limited liability companies (the “LLCs”) based in Delaware and Colorado that have failed to produce documents in response to SEC subpoenas.

Too often corporate directors and officers evade efforts to hold them accountable. A San Francisco federal court has brought Wells Fargo directors and officers one step closer to being held accountable for the rampant wrongdoing at the bank.

One of the fastest growing cyberfrauds is the closing payment scam — the theft of home purchase money wired for closings. How does this scam work? How can you protect yourself? How can you recover losses if you are a victim of this scam?

What should you do if you discover that your mother, father, or an elderly relative has inappropriate or suspicious investments? Do not ignore it. As difficult as this situation is for families, it is important to take action to protect our elderly family members before they lose a lifetime of hard-earned savings.